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Battle of the Emerald Spar Platform
The Battle of the Emerald Spar Platform was a battle between the COG and Gorasni forces against the Lambent on the Emerald Spar Imulsion Platform. Order of Battle Prelude While investigating the disappearance of the Gorasni frigate Nezark, the CNV Clement ended up encountering two Lambent Stalks and a lot of polyps, leading to the Skirmish on the CNV Clement. After it was over, more stalks were spotted popping up by KR Eight-Zero on a line heading straight towards the Emerald Spar Platform. Realizing it was in danger, the Raven set a course while Marcus Fenix called in to warn about the possible threat to the platform and to get help to defend it. After Delta arrived on the platform, they found the workers and their families gearing up for battle, ready to defend the platform rather than evacuate. However, in case they had to evacuate, the workers filled their standby tanker with imulsion so that in case the worst happened, they'd be able to save some imulsion. After it was filled, the tanker left the platform to get to safety. Coming up with options, the workers and Baird hooked up a flammable type of imulsion to hoses around the platform to use as flamethrowers when the stalks arrived to torch the polyps. As the defenders waited, three Ravens showed up with eighteen Gears, Commander Trescu and Cole who had been retrieved from the Clement to help in the battle and brought with him Baird's armor which he'd left on board the Clement. In order to keep an eye out for stalks, KR-471 and KR-239 patrolled the area around the rig and half an hour later, spotted the stalks approaching and fired at them when they popped up some feelers, but did no good. At the same time, the subs Clement and Zephyr as well as the patrol boat CNV Falconer and the CNV Centennial were on the way, but would take over four hours to get there. Battle Finally, a stalk popped up into the bottom decks of the imulsion rig, coming up in the well bay under the drill and started spewing polyps. Everyone who was on the upper deck, expecting the assault to happen there, quickly rushed to the bottom deck to fight off the polyps while the people in the lower decks started taking them out. This also rendered their tactic of using the imulsion hoses as flamethrowers useless. Making their way through the platform, Baird, Cole and Samantha Byrne encountered a door that they realized had polyps behind it from the noise and vibrations and after preparing themselves, opened the door. Dozens of polyps rushed them, but using crossfire, they eliminated all but a few that didn't come through the door and Byrne took those out when checking to see if they were all gone. In the next area, the group encountered a lot more polyps coming up a stairway, but Aurelie Dersau, hanging on a ladder and armed with a Scorcher, sprayed fire over them. For some reason, the polyps didn't immediately detonate, not even when Cole fired into them, but finally one did, causing the stairway and part of the gantry (presumably rusted to a critical point) to fall into the sea and take the polyps with them, but leave Aurelie hanging onto the ladder with nothing below her. After polyps started climbing over the walkway above her, Baird and Cole climbed the safety rails to it and took out the polyps before pulling her to safety. Afterwards, Aurelie headed to an area with more polyps while Baird called the Ravens to take out the stalk after learning that still more polyps were coming out of it. During this time, the polyps reach the upper deck and the Ravens have to battle them off, but KR-239 breaks off to try and take out the stalk. While the battle is going, an explosion destroys a compartment in the accommodation block and starts a fire that a damage control team is sent to put out. Another wave of polyps attacked Baird, Cole and Byrne, but they managed to take them out and KR-239 finally took out the stalk. Afterwards, the defenders took out the remaining polyps, apparently only losing two of the rig crew who were missing, and the major threat became the fire which they were having trouble putting out. As everything calmed down however, another stalk popped up on the other side of the well bay to release even more polyps into the rig. In the well bay, Dom, Marcus, a Gorasni driller, four the rig crew and Trescu battled the polyps that came out of the stalk, but no matter how many they killed, more kept coming and due to a ruptured vapor tank, they couldn't use makeshift flamethrowers without blowing up the platform. Eventually the smoke from the fire got too much and after checking to see that the fire had spread and wasn't under control, Trescu ordered the platform abandoned and the crew to board the lifeboats. The group abandoned the well bay and ran for the boats, grabbing workers and telling them to go as much of the rig was now on fire and it couldn't be saved, sending them to boats or open decks where the Ravens could pick them up. When Gradin refused to leave, Marcus knocked him down and carried him to a boat to prevent him from staying behind. Finally, Delta and Trescu boarded the last lifeboat nearly full of people and took off with Baird driving, ordering everyone else to just jump into the ocean where they could be picked up later. Aftermath After getting to a safe distance, Marcus ordered the boat to a stop and he and Dom checked to see what was happening and discovered Emerald Star completely on fire with the smoke and flames probably visible for kilometers as it was getting dark. The Ravens and the lifeboats went back for survivors and pulled them all from the water, including Aurelie who'd survived but lost her flamethrower. The stalks and polyps were also gone as well, having either left or been destroyed. Not long later, the fuel tanks ruptured in explosions and what was left of the platform collapsed into the sea. As a result of this attack and the sinking of the other ships, Baird came up with the theory that the Lambent were attracted to the Imulsion from everything and it caused everyone to realize that Vectes was in danger, due to the high amount of Imulsion used by the COG fleet and trawlers from Pelruan. With the platform destroyed, the COG also lost its source of Imulsion and lacked the technology to rebuild it, although the tanker sent out before the battle would buy them a little time. References Category:Battles Category:Events Category:Lambent military victories